Lakers broadcaster Mychal Thompson, a Ladera Ranch resident, intimated during Thursday's game that the Lakers would be in the NBA Finals in June. JEFF GOLDEN, GETTY IMAGES

We all know former Lakers center Mychal Thompson, in his ninth season as the color commentator on Lakers radio broadcasts, bleeds purple and gold.

He won two NBA championships during his playing tenure in Los Angeles (1987-91), so his allegiance never will be questioned.

But Thompson, a Ladera Ranch resident, also knows the game inside and out, so one comment he made during Thursday's KSPN/710 broadcast in the waning moments of the Lakers' worse-than-score-indicated loss in Miami took me aback.

"The Lakers will remember this in June," Thompson said, "when they play Games 3, 4 and 5 here."

There's only one way for that to happen, of course — if the Lakers meet the Heat in the NBA Finals and if the Lakers have the better regular-season record.

Don't know if Thompson was having a little fun or whether he is delusional about the long-range potential of this year's Lakers, but this team, as presently constituted, does not look like a title contender.

To be a championship-caliber team, you have to be able to win on the road, and the Lakers went into Friday's game at Orlando with a 1-5 road record (including a loss to the Clippers at Staples Center).

Teams with the best road records, going into Friday's action, were the Chicago Bulls (7-3), Oklahoma City Thunder (6-2), Orlando Magic (5-2) and the Heat (5-3, including two overtime losses.)

Yes, it's still early, but the Lakers had the 12th-best winning percentage in the NBA through Thursday and sixth in the Western Conference.

Sorry, Mychal, much too early to start dreaming of a Lakers-Heat matchup in the NBA Finals.

NFL Final Four: Where are the Packers and Saints? Did they get byes this week?

OK, I underestimated Jim Harbaugh and Tom Coughlin again. Didn't think the 49ers could win a high-scoring game against the Saints and didn't think the Giants could beat the 15-1 Pack at Lambeau Field.

My pre-playoff Super Bowl pick was the Saints over the Ravens, so I'll stick with the Ravens (6-0 against playoff teams in regular season) to "upset" the Patriots (0-2 against playoff teams in regular season) in the AFC title game.

And I'll take the 49ers in the NFC title game to set up a historic Super Bowl coaching matchup between brothers Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh.

Clinton-Norman: Sounds like a political ticket, doesn't it?

Former President Bill Clinton and Greg Norman will be a team in Saturday's pro-am portion of the Humana Challenge, formerly the Bob Hope Classic, teeing it up together on the Palmer Course at PGA West.

Interestingly, the first time they played together — at New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney, Australia in 1996 — Clinton told Norman he had used him as an example during his political campaign, referring to Norman's final-round collapse at the 1996 Masters.

"He surprised me by saying he, too, had learned from my experience," Norman wrote in his book, "The Way of The Shark: Lessons on Golf, Business and Life."

Because he was so far ahead in the polls in '96, everyone was taking for granted that Clinton was going to easily win a second term.

According to the book, Clinton told Norman, "Whenever anybody on my campaign staff pointed to those leads, I would respond by saying, 'Remember Greg Norman at the Masters.' It doesn't matter how good you are or how big a lead you have. You can still be caught before it's all over."

Yes, and they're still friends.

Oops: "The Giants (are) on their way to the Super Bowl!"

Those were the words used by vice president Joe Biden during a private fund-raising dinner in San Francisco earlier this week, immediately eliciting boos from the crowd of fat cats, according to the Oakland Tribune.

You guessed it, Biden got his San Francisco sports teams mixed up. He was thinking 49ers, but mentioned the Giants, San Francisco's baseball team, which also happens to be the team name of the 49ers' opponent in Sunday's NFC title game.

Biden quickly apologized for the embarrassing gaffe. No word on how many people put their wallets back in their pockets.

Ba-da-bing! Miss Wisconsin, Laura Kaeppeler, newly crowned Miss America, took advantage of her time in the national spotlight to reveal she's a big fan of the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback.

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